Boulder council meetings move -- briefly -- to library

Renovations to chambers to improve interaction, accessibility

The Boulder City Council will meet in the Canyon Theater auditorium of the Boulder Main Public Library for the next two months as the council chambers at the Boulder Municipal Building are renovated.

Meetings at the new location will start Tuesday and continue through Jan. 10, if the renovation goes as planned.

Boulder spokesman Patrick Von Keyserling said the public shouldn't notice a significant change, but the renovations should make council chambers easier to use, facilitate interaction between the City Council and the public and allow for more meetings to be televised.

The $415,000 renovation will move the dais closer to the public and improve sight lines for the council members at the ends of the table, as well as adding seating so that more staff members can address the council at once. Office space will be added in the extra space created behind the dais.

There also will be a number of technology upgrades as part of the renovation. The flexible seating area at the front of the chambers will be wired so that more study sessions can be televised over Channel 8, and it should be easier for people attending the study sessions to hear the discussion.

Currently, when the City Council televises a study session, as it has done several times this year on municipalization, the council members have to sit at the dais instead of around a table in the more conversational format used at most study sessions. That's because only the dais is wired for sound.

New, larger screens will make it easier for everyone in the audience to view presentations, and the screens will have a direct feed to the cable broadcast. The current system requires the camera operator to zoom in on the screen, and home viewers can't see the presentations very well.

The renovation will also improve accessibility to the dais and the women's restroom for people with disabilities.

The physical renovations will cost $190,000, with the money coming from the facilities and asset management facility replacement fund. The technology upgrades will cost $225,000, with the money coming from the public access channels and the equipment replacement fund.

The Canyon Theater at the library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., was chosen as the substitute site for council meetings because it is on the same campus as the municipal building and the meetings can be broadcast from there, Von Keyserling said.

The Canyon Theater seats about 200 people, roughly the same capacity as council chambers.

Study sessions, which usually occur on the second and fourth Tuesdays, will be held at the West Senior Center, 909 Arapahoe Ave.

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